Pastor Hayward Miller of Living Word Fellowship is spearheading a project to get aid to Haiti.  His church is setting up bins as collection points, and hoping other locations will follow.

They have a specific list of supplies they’re asking for that’s divided up between basic food and medical needs.  Foods like protein meal bars and powdered milk will help, along with things like medical pads, gauze, and hydrogen peroxide.  You can even donate Tylenol and Aspirin.  Once these bins fill up, the Church will hand the supplies over to a disaster relief organization called Wings of Compassion.  Wings of Compassion will then fly the supplies down to Venice, Florida, where they will be picked up and taken to Hait by another disaster relief group called Agape International.  Agape International has been making weekly flights to Haiti to fly supplies to Haitian missionaries. 

There will be other bins set up in addition to the Living Word Church on 19th Street.  Bins will be set up here at the News13 station in downtown Panama City, as well as PoFolks locations and Complete Autocare in Lynnhaven.

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Help to Haiti Starts in Panama City
01/14/10 - 04:27 PM
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When disaster struck Haiti, many in Panama City sprung into action.  Pastor Hayward Miller of Living Word Fellowship Church was one of them.

“My first thoughts of course were, ‘How can we be a helping hand to help a hurting people in a hurting nation?” Hayward said.

Around the same time, Rodney Friend was beginning to call local leaders to find out who could set up bins to collect basic medical and food supplies to send to Haiti.  Friend called his pastor first.

“I was trying to find out what we could do, and then I got a call from Wings of Compassion,” Hayward said. “And decided to get together with them to help.”

Rodney Friend is the President of Wings of Compassion, a local non-profit disaster relief organization.  They fly supplies to those who need them when disaster strikes. 

He’s ready to start flying to Haiti.
 
“Once people drop [the supplies] off at the locations, we have a ground support team that will actually collect it and bring it back,” Friend said.  “We have a hangar here where we’ll store it, and make as many trips as we need to.”

Friend and other volunteer pilots will then take the collected supplies down to Venice, Florida.  There they’ll hand them over to another group, called Agape International. 

Agape International has been supplying Haitian missionaries for years, by way of weekly flights.  Once the earthquake hit, Hayward said it was only natural to get in touch with a group that already knew the country well.

“[That way] we can make sure it gets directly to the people that are hurting,” Hayward said. “Through the missionaries and through the missions there in Haiti.”

Despite the fact that there’s a lot to coordinate, Friend said it isn’t too tough to handle.

“It’s not too bad, I mean you’ve got a lot of people in the community who want to step up to help, Friend said.  “That’s probably going to be the hardest part –just answering the phone.”